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The Ritual is proof that if you’re going to make any sort of film about an exorcism, then stop: It was done best in 1973, with The Exorcist, especially in its Director’s Cut form.
This one is described in the billing as “Two priests, one in crisis with his faith and the other confronting a turbulent past, must overcome their differences to perform a risky exorcism”, but for the pair performing as real-life priests from the past – Al Pacino as Father Theophilus Riesinger, and Dan Stevens as Father Joseph Steiger, the latter puts on his occasional American accent, but I had absolutely no idea where Pacino’s character was meant to be from. I later looked him up and learned the guy was German-American!
Over the course of six rituals, the exorcism is performed on a young woman, Emma Schmidt (Abigail Cowen – Fate: The Winx Saga), yet in real life, the lady was 46, and the rituals were carried out over the course of 23 days.
However, it was tedious beyond belief, as well as being badly written and directed, droning on and on, and going nowhere but round in circles. There was also a separate sideplot about how Joseph’s brother had passed away – which was mentioned more than once, but had zero bearing on the plot.
The Ritual was basically a case of “weird shit starts happening”, over and over.
It also didn’t help that while the screen I was in (screen 2) is usually one of the better smaller screens, I could see the text onscreen was quite rough as the trailers were on, but then when the Odeon bins card came up, just before the film, and then the opening titles, it was clearly blurry and out of focus.
I did go and ask out front, one guy came back in to look with me, and saw that part of the opening credits wasn’t right, but at first it sounded like he thought the projector would correct itself? I’m not sure where he was going with that, since that never happens. However, I did ask again if someone could please check it.
It then looked like someone tried to correct it a few minutes later – which went even more blurry, but then was turned back and ended up put back the same as it was, originally. So, we were no further forward.
As such, the Latin/English subtitles in a couple of scenes were hard to read, and then as for the three pages of text at the end, as it refers back to the real-life Riesinger and Steiger… forget it!
I’ve since mentioned it to Odeon’s Twitter people, and they tell me they have heard back that it’s been corrected, but I’ve asked if they can clarify what the problem was, given that it couldn’t be sorted out on the day, making me think it was a broken projector.
Normally, Dan Stevens is very reliable – such as with films like Cuckoo, The Guest, and in fluent German for I’m Your Man, but occasionally he does take a busman’s holiday, such as with both this and Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire.
Plus, at one point, Pacino – who, perhaps, should’ve called it a day with a great legacy, after 2018’s The Irishman – says to the others, “Clearly, you’re not seeing what is happening here!”
Sure, because the projector’s knackered, and I feel like Mr Magoo(!)
As an aside, I know they were also using that screen for Lilo And Stitch in 3D, earlier in the day, and I did wonder if the 3D filter had been left on, but when I’ve seen that done before – and had to get it corrected, it looks a bit different, so I don’t think it was that. More news when I have it!
Oh, and it’s also another film that’s been shot in 2.00:1, which doesn’t fit ANY cinema screen, so it’s clear that this dross was intended to go straight to streaming, but it somehow escaped to the big screen.
NOTE: There is NO mid- or post-credits scene.
The Ritual is in cinemas now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 98 minutes
Release date: May 30th 2025
Studio: Altitude Film Distribution
Aspect Ratio: 2.00:1
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 0/10
Director: David Midell
Producers: Ross Kagan Marks, Enrico Natale, Andrew Stevens, Mitchell Welch
Screenplay: David Midell, Enrico Natale
Music: Jason Lazarus, Joseph Trapanese
Cast:
Father Theophilus Riesinger: Al Pacino
Father Joseph Steiger: Dan Stevens
Sister Rose: Ashley Greene
Emma Schmidt: Abigail Cowen
Bishop Edwards: Patrick Fabian
Mother Superior: Patricia Heaton
Sister Camila: Maria Camila Giraldo
Sister Sarah: Meadow Williams
Dr. Fabian: Enrico Natale
Chester: Ritchie Montgomery
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.